


Put Me Together

by coloursflyaway



Series: Radiant [3]
Category: Professional Wrestling, World Wrestling Entertainment
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Love Confessions, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-02
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:34:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27339493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/coloursflyaway/pseuds/coloursflyaway
Summary: Kevin hasn’t moved closer during the night, but he hasn’t moved away either and that’s more than enough.
Relationships: Kevin Owens | Kevin Steen/Sami Zayn | El Generico
Series: Radiant [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1996324
Comments: 2
Kudos: 7





	Put Me Together

**Author's Note:**

> So, just to avoid potential confusion - since I am very slow with writing these days, this is still taking place in pre-Covid (if anyone can still remember that), Shinsuke-and-Cesaro-and-Sami times. Therefore there's travelling and a half-a-sentence mention of the other two.
> 
> Also shout out to my two Tumblr Zowens girls, who somehow inspired me enough to actually start AND finish this, you're incredible ♥♥♥

It’s the first rays of sunshine that wake Sami after a night in which he didn’t expect to sleep at all. Too much time has been spent planning, worrying, hoping; he wouldn’t be able to close his eyes for more than a second, Sami had been certain of it.  
Maybe it is age catching on to him, but he wakes up, with heavy lids and a heart lighter than it has been in weeks, with another’s breath tickling his cheek and the unfamiliar weight of an arm slung carelessly around his waist.  
Kevin hasn’t moved closer during the night, but he hasn’t moved away either and that’s more than enough, especially with how difficult it had been to organise this in the first place.

Even with all the planning Kevin had done already, it had taken them more than two weeks to find a date to meet up, long enough that their discussions about it had almost turned frantic, desperate. It had seemed impossible, and yet their schedules refused to match up, never giving them enough leeway to drive for hours after shows.  
More than once one of them had to cancel just the day before, because matches had been moved or stipulations added that would ensure they wouldn’t be in a state to drive longer than strictly necessary. It had seemed like the cruellest twist of fate, that they’d be allowed to have each other, just to put half a continent between them.

Especially because now that they had had that one night together, life had taught Sami that he previously had no idea what it meant to truly miss someone.  
While he had known how to miss Kevin’s voice before, his chuckles and his dry sense of humour, he now could miss the feeling of Kevin’s lips moving against his own, the scratch of his stubble, the way his voice sounded when he told Sami _If you had been there, I could have belonged anywhere,_ not looking at him, as if he couldn’t bear to be rejected.

It had added a whole new layer, making concentrating on almost anything else impossible, up to the point where Sami had to come clean to Shinsuke and Cesaro, not because he disappeared after a show and didn’t come back until morning, but because he had become so desperate with every new change of their schedule that it was impossible to keep it a secret any longer.  
Not that they cared much; had Sami not been so relieved, he would have been offended by their indifference.

However, none of that matters anymore, at least not for now; the only thing that does is Kevin’s fingertips that brush across Sami’s spine with every breath he takes.  
Although it’s not in his nature anymore, Sami allows himself to just enjoy the sensation, the feeling that is slowly filling up his chest. The tightness of it he knows so well, the fluttering of his heartbeat as it drums against its confines, the giddiness that comes with the sight of Kevin so vulnerable, and above all, the overwhelming warmth of love, knowing that its requited.  
The knowledge, which has settled deep down in his bones, that this is right, this where he is where he is supposed to be. Over the years, their lives have pushed them into every possible direction, towards each other only to force them apart again, but nothing has ever felt like this.

The fingers that rest against his spine curl and Sami can’t help but smile and push a little closer, just enough so he can make out every single one of Kevin’s lashes, the faint crow’s feet that time has etched into his skin.  
It’s close enough for Sami to feel the warmth he radiates, something he knows he’ll miss as soon as they have kissed goodbye in the privacy, the security of the motel room they rented for the night. Sami hates the secrecy, but at the same time, he knows that they need it, at least for now.

Again, Kevin makes a sound, uncharacteristically soft and as close to sweet as he will ever get, but as close as he is, Sami feels it more than he hears it, the rumbling of Kevin’s chest and the light breeze of his breath against Sami’s skin.  
The sensation triggers something inside him, something almost primal, and it’s all he can do to not bury his face in Kevin’s chest and breathe him in, knowing the other smells like shampoo and a brighter future for both of them.

From birth, he has been raised to believe in fate and yet it hadn’t been an important concept in his life, at least not until Kevin stepped into it, ruddy-cheeked and arrogant and rude, but still fitting perfectly into a gap in Sami’s heart he hadn’t known existed until then.  
Since that day, Kevin has grown – _they_ have grown – and yet that one thing has never changed.

Sami would be perfectly happy just sifting through memories and seeing where they take him, as long as he is cuddled into the bed and Kevin’s warmth, but next to him, Kevin shifts. His arm tightens around Sami’s body, who realises, almost like a bolt of lightening ripping through his body, that even before waking, Kevin wants him closer.  
He wouldn’t know what to do but move, so Sami does, resting their foreheads together like they have done a hundred times before. The familiarity of it makes his chest swell, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth, even as Sami slides his hand up Kevin’s chest until it comes to rest in the crook of Kevin’s neck.  
Just for a second, not quite long enough to wash away the serenity of the morning, he remembers burying his face in there the night before, gasping half-formed pleas and adorations against sweat-slick skin. Hearing Kevin reply in kind, just as wrecked, just as overwhelmed.

“You really need to stop thinking so early in the morning”, Kevin mutters before even opening his eyes, and his voice is beautifully rough with sleep, the words slurred together slightly. “It’s distracting.”  
The absurdity of the statement makes Sami laugh, their noses brushing, and the pleased hum he gets from Kevin in return causes a whole host of butterflies to scatter in his stomach. Still, he has to admit that, if anyone could read his thoughts, it would be Kevin.

“You absolutely cannot hear me thinking”, he tells Kevin anyway, but lets the other steal the shortest of kisses from his willing lips.  
This closeness, the freely given affection and easy companionship, still makes a tiny voice in Sami’s mind scream its suspicions, but Sami squashes it, ignores it, pushes it so far down that the sounds can’t reach him any longer. This is different, they are different, he has to believe it as much as he has to be right about it.  
“I could. I did”, Kevin repeats, so effortlessly that Sami forgets everything about their past in favour of loving him. “It was loud enough to wake me up. And you know how hard that is.”

He is right about that, Sami has learnt it in every single hotel room they ever shared; again, it makes him chuckle, and even if Sami cannot see Kevin’s smile, he can sense it, nonetheless.  
“What were you thinking about, anyway?”, Kevin asks and maybe it’s Sami, who can read minds after all, because the smile is audible in his voice as well.  
“You”, he answers and it’s easier than it should be to bare his soul, not because of the early hours, not because of how much he missed Kevin, just because it’s them. “Us.”

Instead of a reply, Sami gets another thoughtful hum, then Kevin shifts back, away from him. Not more than a few inches, just enough so he can look at Sami, yet Sami feels his body tense at the threat of losing contact so soon, tastes the unspoken plea to stay that clings to his lips.  
And Kevin must notice it to, Sami can see it in his eyes; he doesn’t say a word, just presses his fingertips against the ridges of Sami’s spine to let him know he’s still there.

“Any new insights?”, Kevin asks, his fingers tracing patterns between Sami’s shoulder blades, and it’s only because Sami knows him so well that he picks up on the faint trace of nervousness hidden behind the inconspicuous words. As if there if anything that could be hidden in Sami’s mind that could change them.  
It’s a side of Kevin that Sami isn’t used to seeing and cannot imagine becoming accustomed to; maybe that’s why all of a sudden, he breaks open.  
He has loved Kevin for over a decade, through highs and lows, break-ups and reunions, through harsh barbs and affectionate nicknames, through the very best and the very worst of it. He has loved Kevin so desperately he thought he’d forget to breathe, so passionately that a single touch could set him aflame, so hopelessly it felt like drowning. And he loves him still, with the same intensity, the same fire, only that Kevin holds him close now, like Sami is something precious, and what washes over Sami now isn’t a wave of emotion, it’s a force of nature.

The feeling is as much pleasure as it is pain, it’s all of them wrapped in one, an end and a beginning, and Kevin doesn’t look away from him for a second as Sami’s heart gasps for air.  
His eyes are suddenly clear and wide awake, his fingers now pressing gently against Sami’s spine, as if to anchor them both.  
He knows, somehow, he can sense it. Maybe he can read Sami’s thoughts after all.

“No”, Sami finally answers, a few seconds to late, even though his chest still seems to be a second away from bursting, and this is it.  
It’s no question, no possibility, nothing that Sami could stop if he tried; it’s now and it feels like it always had to be. After all the times the words hung on the tip of his tongue, pushed against the seam of his lips, so desperate to be spoken, after the long car rides and early mornings, the tense silences in the locker rooms and the breathless, endless moments during matches.  
All this time, it as supposed to be now, not bloody and not bruised, not desperate and not drunk on victory either. Just wrapped into each other, just them.  
“Nothing new”, Sami says, and his heartbeat is steady; there’s no fear, no hesitation. “Just that I love you, is all.”

Nothing happens, because nothing changes.  
The Earth doesn’t stop spinning and the sun doesn’t shine brighter, the seconds of their lives tick away at the same speed, the love that fills Sami’s chest neither grows nor withers.  
Nothing can change, because this is a truth so old it has been woven into the fabric of the world long ago.

Still, Sami gets to watch Kevin’s eyes widen, his lips part in surprise, and maybe he was wrong, maybe the sun does shine brighter, because looking at Kevin is like watching the sunrise. His gaze clouds over, his cheeks gain a hint of colour; he’s never been beautiful, but he doesn’t have to be, as long as he’s Sami’s.  
A few seconds pass in the sweetest silence Sami has ever known; he doesn’t want to break it, not before Kevin is ready.

“Love”, Kevin finally echoes, and the word sounds like a spell and a prayer at the same time. “Big word.”  
“Yes”, Sami agrees easily; under the fingers he still has pressed against Kevin’s neck, the other’s pulse has picked up, as if to race towards him. “It has to be.”  
Another pause, in which Sami tries to commit Kevin’s face to memory just the way it is, open and confused and hopeful. The sun and all the stars shining from his eyes, a smile tugging on his lips. And then, slowly, Kevin’s eyes clear once more, the daze bleeding away to give way to an intensity that Sami knows so well and yet still takes his breath away.  
“Yeah”, Kevin finally says, and there is still some of that reverence clinging to his voice, but just underneath that, there’s enough affection to sustain Sami for a lifetime. “You’re right.”

And it would be enough for Sami, who didn’t need to hear the words, just to say them, but Kevin’s eyes flutter shut for a split second, his fingertips dig into Sami’s flesh to bring him closer.  
This time, when Sami feels the words before he hears them, it’s still not because of Kevin’s breath on his skin or the vibrations of Kevin’s voice, but because of the years and years and years they have known each other.  
Because Sami’s heart beats with the same rhythm, the same intent.  
“I love you too.”

**Author's Note:**

> In case you want to say hi, send me a prompt, or tell me something nice, you can find me on Tumblr here:  
> [X](http://www.coloursflyaway.tumblr.com)


End file.
